Britain said on Tuesday there are no plans to send British warships to help get food exports such as grain out of the blockaded Ukrainian port of Odesa.

"Putin's despicable blockade of Odesa is preventing food getting to people who need it," a government spokesperson said.

"We will continue to work intensively with international partners to find ways to resume the export of grain from Ukraine. However, there are no current plans to deploy UK warships to the Black Sea."

(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, editing by Alistair Smout)